Surgery News and Research

RSS

Debate over medical malpractice litigation continues

The Senate is expected to vote soon on legislation to impose a federal cap on noneconomic damages in malpractice suits, following on similar bills that passed the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate last year.

10 May 2006

Human factors/ergonomics professionals are improving health care

The latest issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contains a special section describing ways in which human factors/ergonomics professionals are improving health care.

10 May 2006

Unique protein expression could serve as a screening test for head and neck cancers

The blood of patients with head and neck cancer appears to have unique patterns of protein expression that one day could serve as a screening test for the highly aggressive cancer that is often diagnosed too late, researchers say.

10 May 2006

Local clinical quality monitoring for detection of excess operative deaths

If convicted murderer Dr Harold Shipman had been working as a surgeon or anaesthetist at a specialist UK heart hospital in Cambridge, increased patient death rates would have alerted clinical audit staff after eight to ten months, according to research in the latest issue of Anaesthesia.

10 May 2006

Promising chemo, therapeutic viruses, cutting-edge surgery debut at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Brain tumor specialists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center are poised on the brink of a new era.

10 May 2006

What is the best laparoscopic approach for laparoscopic radical nephrectomy?

Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy is rapidly becoming the gold standard as the surgical procedure of choice in patients with localized renal cell carcinoma.

10 May 2006

Impact of optional regulations on heart attack treatment

People who have heart attacks are about 15 percent less likely to be treated with bypass surgery or angioplasty within the first few days of the incident in states with certificate of need (CON) regulatory programs.

10 May 2006

Liposuction patients would have the procedure again

Patients are weighing in on liposuction, the most popular cosmetic plastic surgery procedure in 2005, and resoundingly saying they would have the procedure again.

9 May 2006

Summer sun safety - research reveals significant link to melanoma

Fifty years of medical studies show that sun exposure is a primary component in the development of melanoma, the most serious and deadly type of skin cancer, report leading dermatologists in the April 2006 issue of Dermatologic Surgery.

9 May 2006

NYU pediatric neurosurgeon reports on 25 children with tuberous sclerosis

Sadly, none of the treatments for epilepsy - anti-seizure medications, a procedure called vagus nerve stimulation, a special diet - could quell the electrical storms in the young boy's brain.

8 May 2006

Breast removal not the only treatment option for non-invasive breast cancer

Breast conserving surgery, long known to be successful at treating the more common invasive cancer, can also be effective for this pre-invasive condition, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

8 May 2006

Gene mutation associated with deafness can play an important part in wound healing

A mutation in a gene commonly associated with deafness can play an important part in improving wound healing, a scientist told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

8 May 2006

New approaches to genetic disease, based on cells' own ability to correct themselves

New approaches to genetic disease, based on cells' own ability to correct themselves, will be outlined today at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

8 May 2006

$New procedure to treat fractured vertebrae caused by spinal tumors$

New procedure to treat fractured vertebrae caused by spinal tumors

A radiologist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine has developed a new procedure to treat fractured vertebrae caused by spinal tumors, a procedure that may decrease the risk of complications, which are experienced by 5 to 10% of patients with malignant tumors of the spine.

8 May 2006

Breast conserving surgery is a good option for early breast cancer

For women diagnosed with a type of non-invasive breast cancer, removing the breast is not the only treatment option.

8 May 2006

Selecting patients for breast conserving therapy: The importance of lobular histology

Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast can be treated with breast conserving surgery (BCT), as is invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), without greater future risk of radical surgical treatment or additional surgeries, according to a new study.

8 May 2006

Image-guided kidney biopsy can diagnose benign kidney tumors and has a low rate of complications

For the study, 407 image-guided kidney lesion biopsies were performed in 377 patients using either CT, ultrasound, or a combination of both to guide a small needle through the skin of the patient to take a sample of the lesion.

3 May 2006

Bladeless LASIK as good as standard microkeratome LASIK

A Mayo Clinic study comparing femtosecond (bladeless) and mechanical microkeratome LASIK surgeries has found equal results from both types six months post-surgery, using a variety of vision and eye health measurements.

3 May 2006

Percutaneous cryoablation is a safe method for treating kidney tumors

Percutaneous cryoablation, a relatively non-invasive technique that destroys tumors by freezing them, is a safe method for treating kidney tumors in selected patients who are not considered candidates for surgery, according to a new study by researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

3 May 2006

DARPA grant supports research toward realizing tissue regeneration

While U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are surviving injuries that in previous conflicts likely would have been fatal, the number of wounded with major tissue loss has never before been so high.

3 May 2006